Can someone explain tint to me? (Want 01-02 style factory bronze tint) (1 Viewer)

[usedname]

I have some aftermarket tint on my 2006 LX. It is gray and dark and... reflecty. Not just on the outside, but because it's pretty dark (35%), it seems to reflect more of the light from the inside (for example console lights when it's cloudy or even the raindrops themselves when it's rainy).

I assume the actual % transmission is even lower than 35% since it's factory glass so there's probably already green tint on it.

I loved the factory bronze tint on '02 and my plan is to get this stuff taken off and find some lighter bronze tint. My understanding is specific UV protection is independent of % light transmission.

My Q is
1. what matches the factory bronze tint on an '02? / what's the factory % transmission?
2. is the reason that it's reflective on the inside because it's dark, because it maybe has UV protection, or something else?
3. can I get bronze tint that overpowers thre factory green without being too dark, and still get UV protection for the Norcal sun?

Edit: well, I searched this forum but I didn't search the interwebs; apparently there is also something called visibile light reflection VLR and tint above 10% VLR is very noticeable. So I guess I just need bronze tint that has low VLR.

 

[dubdub20003]

Subscribed. I’d like front windows tinted to match factory on rear… and too ocd to not have a close match!

 

[jLB]

I have some aftermarket tint on my 2006 LX. It is gray and dark and... reflecty. Not just on the outside, but because it's pretty dark (35%), it seems to reflect more of the light from the inside (for example console lights when it's cloudy or even the raindrops themselves when it's rainy).

I assume the actual % transmission is even lower than 35% since it's factory glass so there's probably already green tint on it.

I loved the factory bronze tint on '02 and my plan is to get this stuff taken off and find some lighter bronze tint. My understanding is specific UV protection is independent of % light transmission.

My Q is
1. what matches the factory bronze tint on an '02? / what's the factory % transmission?
2. is the reason that it's reflective on the inside because it's dark, because it maybe has UV protection, or something else?
3. can I get bronze tint that overpowers thre factory green without being too dark, and still get UV protection for the Norcal sun?

View attachment 3287192



Edit: well, I searched this forum but I didn't search the interwebs; apparently there is also something called visibile light reflection VLR and tint above 10% VLR is very noticeable. So I guess I just need bronze tint that has low VLR.

So I’ll guess that your vehicle was originally sold at Northside Lexus?

 

[suprarx7nut]

A few things:

1. The "reflecty" nature of your current tint sounds like it's just really poor tint. Modern name brands have relatively low interior reflectivity.
2. Factory tint is around 20-35% VLT. That's to say 20-35% of light goes through it. Your sticker indicates 35%. That's relatively light in the tinting world. If 35% is "reflecty" then you must have some really, really old and terrible tint.
3. VLR - I've lived with many tinted cars. Some cheap and some expensive. With the nicer stuff I have never thought that anything was reflecting inside with the exception of my wife's car with limo tint on TOP of the factory tint. Her car is basically a near full blackout 2% tint in the rear and tough to see out of at night. 17x less light than your 35%. Even that's not very reflective inside.
4. Bronze: I'm 98% sure you cannot make the dyed glass from the recent years look bronze. The green/grey is baked into the glass. There's nothing you can put on the inside to over power what's already on the outside.
5. Modern tint is amazing. You can get tint that's basically transparent to the eye, but blocks a ton of radiant heat and almost all UV. One of the common 3M tints for homes is nearly 300 layers of material. In a tint that's nearly transparent. It's nuts. Shop around and see if you can find something that does what you want... color change aside.

 

[usedname]

So I’ll guess that your vehicle was originally sold at Northside Lexus?

Carfax says Westside Lexus. Close to you?

Spent most of its life in -- and what the heck kind of name is that? -- TOMBALL.

A few things:

1. The "reflecty" nature of your current tint sounds like it's just really poor tint. Modern name brands have relatively low interior reflectivity.
2. Factory tint is around 20-35% VLT. That's to say 20-35% of light goes through it. Your sticker indicates 35%. That's relatively light in the tinting world. If 35% is "reflecty" then you must have some really, really old and terrible tint.
3. VLR - I've lived with many tinted cars. Some cheap and some expensive. With the nicer stuff I have never thought that anything was reflecting inside with the exception of my wife's car with limo tint on TOP of the factory tint. Her car is basically a near full blackout 2% tint in the rear and tough to see out of at night. 17x less light than your 35%. Even that's not very reflective inside.
4. Bronze: I'm 98% sure you cannot make the dyed glass from the recent years look bronze. The green/grey is baked into the glass. There's nothing you can put on the inside to over power what's already on the outside.
5. Modern tint is amazing. You can get tint that's basically transparent to the eye, but blocks a ton of radiant heat and almost all UV. One of the common 3M tints for homes is nearly 300 layers of material. In a tint that's nearly transparent. It's nuts. Shop around and see if you can find something that does what you want... color change aside.

Wow thanks for the knowledge drop.

Green cancels red (and vice versa) but it could be overpowered with enough of a saturated orange-y film, I'm pretty sure. But as you said you can only go darker and I'd probably sacrifice a lot of VLT to get there. I take it the factory tint doesn't provide much UV/IR perrtekshun? And if there's now clear tint that does provide a lot of energy reflection, then we can use it on windshields too?


Norcal sun is no joke, we're second only to the AZ area for most hours of sunshine. My LS430 seats and steering wheel are all crackled from two years of exposure.

 

[YezusLX]

Bronze film possible matches are:
Suntek HP40 or 18 bronze
Johnson window film is also a possible match out of Carson, California
The actual "old school" film was Llumar 'Platinum Plus' was the bronze mirrored film if any tinter has some stashed. It went out of production in the early 2010s. (Let me know I will buy it for my '99).
You can also try the Autobahn reflective security film with their standard ceramic grey on top to attempt to dilute the bronze and blend the rear OEM rear glass if you tint the rear darker as well.
Same if you are tinting the windshield.

 

[suprarx7nut]

Wow thanks for the knowledge drop.

Green cancels red (and vice versa) but it could be overpowered with enough of a saturated orange-y film, I'm pretty sure. But as you said you can only go darker and I'd probably sacrifice a lot of VLT to get there. I take it the factory tint doesn't provide much UV/IR perrtekshun? And if there's now clear tint that does provide a lot of energy reflection, then we can use it on windshields too?


Norcal sun is no joke, we're second only to the AZ area for most hours of sunshine. My LS430 seats and steering wheel are all crackled from two years of exposure.

I'm pretty sure the factory glass has no significant UV protection.

Yes, windshield tint is a thing. I believe I have 90% on my LX and I think 70% on my Tesla. It's fantastic. It reduces oncoming glare at night and stops a lot of heat during the day. Every car I buy gets a prompt trip to a tint shop for clear bra and tint!

 

[trdcorolla]

Viper 30 tint is what a lot of 98-02 100 owners used for the fronts for a close match. There was a guy selling some here on mud years ago. It's been discontinued for a while so hunting it down might be hard.

 

[YezusLX]

Viper 30 tint is what a lot of 98-02 100 owners used for the fronts for a close match. There was a guy selling some here on mud years ago. It's been discontinued for a while so hunting it down might be hard.

I forgot about the Viper electronics film. It did have a bronze/brown look to it. It may be worth checking but I think Johnson may have been the original producer of that film as they are the underlying producer for a lot of companies. I had not thought of this before. Good call!

 

[jLB]

Carfax says Westside Lexus. Close to you?

Spent most of its life in -- and what the heck kind of name is that? -- TOMBALL.

Most of my dealings have been with Westside (closest to my house). From what I understand, Northside is a sister dealership.

(If I remember correctly the town of Peck was renamed to Tomball, around 1900, in honor of Thomas Ball, who got the railroad run through the small town. Now pretty much just another Houston suburb.)

 

[FJ73Texas]

Not a 100 series and I did a lot of research across the 80 series and 100 series threads as those two sections seems to be where the most discussion comes up for bronze tint so I thought I would chime in with some results of my own in this thread being it is the most recent discussion of the tint.

I took a chance and had some suntek HP bronze tint 40% installed all the way around to replace the failing tint on my HZJ77. It came out really good but no idea how it compares to the factory bronze on the 80 and 100 series. It was not easy to find a local tint shop to even buy this tint for me and only one of them would actually do it. Pretty much all other tint shops would just not even bother or claimed to never heard of bronze tint.

Anyways here are some pics of the 40 HP bronze tint. I may end up going back to get 18 HP bronze on the rear glass. Not sure yet.

 

[usedname]

Not a 100 series and I did a lot of research across the 80 series and 100 series threads as those two sections seems to be where the most discussion comes up for bronze tint so I thought I would chime in with some results of my own in this thread being it is the most recent discussion of the tint.

I took a chance and had some suntek HP bronze tint 40% installed all the way around to replace the failing tint on my HZJ77. It came out really good but no idea how it compares to the factory bronze on the 80 and 100 series. It was not easy to find a local tint shop to even buy this tint for me and only one of them would actually do it. Pretty much all other tint shops would just not even bother or claimed to never heard of bronze tint.

Anyways here are some pics of the 40 HP bronze tint. I may end up going back to get 18 HP bronze on the rear glass. Not sure yet.

View attachment 3335504 View attachment 3335505 View attachment 3335506

That looks so dang good. I haven't gotten around to getting mine retinted but definitely going bronze.

Why do you think they gave you such a hard time?

 

[FJ73Texas]

That looks so dang good. I haven't gotten around to getting mine retinted but definitely going bronze.

Why do you think they gave you such a hard time?

I am not sure. I never had to fight so hard to get a specific tint. Maybe because they were the only official suntek installer listed on the suntek website for my city?